True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 2: Psycho In-Laws, Missing Mom, Burned Car & Baby Left Behind | Rose Goggins

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

In Part 2 of True Crime with Kimbyr, the investigation into Rose Goggins’ disappearance takes a darker turn. As new evidence surfaces and timelines tighten, unsettling details about her in-laws and inner circle begin to emerge. What secrets were hidden behind closed doors—and who had the most to gain from her vanishing? With emotional insight and sharp analysis, True Crime with Kimbyr unpacks contradictions, motives, and the chilling possibilities that linger. Is the truth finally within reach, or does this case run deeper than anyone imagined? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Well, around the same time, a man named Scott Lawrence came forward. He contacted Sheriff Rick Wilson and he wanted to speak to them. And this is when the plot thickens. Lawrence was a former employee of the Beardorf's. He worked on their property and he was incarcerated on a parole violation recently. But then he saw a news coverage. about Rose's disappearance. Already, cops are probably thinking,

okay, we're going to probably take this with a grain of salt. But he said, seeing Rose's story and then the burned car made something he witnessed months earlier feel very important. Lawrence told detectives that while he was doing construction work for the Bierdorf's, he witnessed an argument between Stephen and his wife, Sylvia. And Lawrence said, it was an argument about Rose.

And during this argument, Sylvia made a comment that stuck with him. He remembered her saying to Stephen that he needed to do something to get Rose out of the picture. Like literally? Or did they perhaps mean they wanted their son and his fiance to maybe find their own place to live? I mean, that could mean different things, right?

Well, Lawrence had more to add. He described another moment separate from that argument, not long afterward, where he claimed that Stephen approached him directly. And he tried to enlist his health. help to kidnap Rose, even offering him money and alcohol in exchange for bringing her back to Stephen so he could, in his words, take care of it. Now, that sounds sinister. Lawrence said, of course, he didn't accept. At first, he kind of brushed it off because Stephen had been drinking, and he thought maybe it was just him venting in anger. But then he told investigators something

that made the timing feel very eerie. The very next day, Lawrence was arrested on that parole violation and he never returned to that property. And he wondered, who reported him? Who would want him gone? Who might have thought he was in too deep and might, you know, give away some information? I think you know who. So that's why Lawrence was coming forward. He said, Stephen's words no longer seemed like venting. They sound like intent. But here's this guy who thinks his former employer put him in jail. Is that retaliation by coming forward? Or is it the truth? Lawrence couldn't give detectives recordings or any hard proof. He didn't have witnesses to corroborate any of this, but it was the only lead they had. And Steve's parents were already under suspicion.

So detectives decided to start interviewing more of Rose's closest friends and the people who cared about her in her life, even in her life before the Beardorfs came along, and others who were around right before she vanished. Maybe they could provide more information about what she thought of Steve's parents, and that could add context. This is to build out of Rose's victimology. So here's what detectives found out. When Rose fell for Steve Birdorf's, a big part of what she fell for wasn't just him. It was what he represented. Someone that came from structure, came from a good family with morals and rules, someone who was supposed to protect people. But what Rose didn't see yet, when none of us can see when we're in that honeymoon

phase of a relationship where it still feels really safe, is that Steve didn't come from the kind of stability that Rose imagined he had. He came from a family where survival and control were baked into the foundation. Oh, there were rules. And the closer Rose got to Steve, the more she was stepping into the system where those rules were created.

So let's start with that home that she saw when she first came over. It was really nice. A log cabin in the woods, a place some people dream about for relaxation and a getaway. But this home wasn't in a neighborhood where people pop over with casseroles

or wave to each other from the porches. Locals even had a name for this remote area. They called it God's country. And that nickname tells you a lot. It's supposed to mean peaceful, favored by God, somewhere cherished. It was beautiful for sure, but it was isolated. It was the kind of place where what happens on your land stays on your land because you're removed from the rest of the world. Fewer eyes, fewer interruptions, fewer people to ask questions. Fewer people in your business. According to the few neighbors they did have, the Beardorf's weren't exactly social. Of course, people recognize them by name, but they had very little direct interaction with them. The family didn't participate in community activities.

They didn't build strong community ties. They rarely asked for help. There weren't reports of loud disturbances or anything like that. But there also weren't signs of close friendships. They were just there. Very private. extremely closed off. And that kind of quiet can mean a lot of things, like maybe they had something to hide. I mean, why do cult leaders decide to find the most isolated place for their havens? Exactly.

And the leader of this household, Stephen Sr., in his early life was marked by violence inside of his home. Records and even people familiar with his family described his father as having a very volatile temper, and it escalated into aggression until it reached a breaking point that changed everything. I don't think you could have guessed this. Stephen's father killed his wife.

Yeah, Steven's father is a murderer. Now this was Stevens' stepmother. His dad went to prison, but imagine what that does to a kid. This is where Rose's fiance's dad had come from. One day, he had a household, maybe not the most healthiest one, but he had one that was together. And then suddenly, there's homicide. Your dad's arrested. He gets a prison sentence, and the entire family structure collapses.

No stability, no safety, no consistent adults holding anything together. And after Stephen's father was incarcerated, where his stepmother's death, Stephen Sr. moved between relatives. He never stayed long enough to build a support system. He worked small jobs. He lived on whatever he could. And he learned early on that adults could not step in for him. And some of this is echoed in Rose's life as well, but not to this extreme. By 16, Stephen left home completely and never returned. This is not just growing up fast. This is a childhood where you learn one lesson over and over again.

No one's going to save you. And when people grow up like that, they often cope in one of two ways. Some people like Rose become gentle and protective because they never want anyone to feel what they felt. and other people like Stephen Sr. become obsessed with control, because control feels like safety to them. And multiple sources describe Stephen as a man who needed control. I told you that Stephen and Sylvia met young

and had Steve soon after they eloped. Well, people who knew them back then said that they described this household atmosphere as reflecting Stephen's temper, something that they said that he inherited from his father. And there were allegations that Steve, directed his anger towards his wife, Sylvia. And those accounts were never confirmed in court,

but they were repeated often enough that investigators could not ignore them. And then, the dynamics shifted when their children entered the picture. When Steve Jr. was born, it seemed to interrupt some of the volatility at first. There were fewer explosive arguments and more focus on Stephen providing as a father.

And then their second son, Joshua, was born a few years later, and eventually they built that log cabin in Clifton. They had land. They had privacy. They had a family unit that from the outside looked like they were living the American dream. But inside that home, it wasn't just about family values. It was about family rules. When Rose met Steve, she had no idea how he grew up. Of course, he was loved by both of his parents. And from an outsider's point of view, the bond between him and his father, it looked so close they were like fused together. They were inseparable. And that could look like a good thing.

But there was more to it. Steve's dad positioned himself as a primary influence in his son's life, and Steve mirrored his dad in so many ways. Mannerisms, interests, worldview. And in a household like that, respect for authority and loyalty to family are not just values. They're a code of conduct. When you grow up in a house like this, you learn something. You always choose your blood.

So if there's a conflict between, let's say, your partner, and your family. You choose your family. You don't choose your partner. And that's not me being dramatic. There was a hierarchy that existed. And Rose didn't know she was stepping into this until she was already in too deep, already in love,

already committed to making things work. She thought this was everything that she ever hoped for. And I told you Steve was a cop, but I didn't get to elaborate. Detectives found out that Steve pursued a career in law enforcement right after graduating from high school, and he called it his calling, his passion. He enrolled at Cleveland State Community College, he completed all of his coursework, and then he moved into the Police Academy. He liked the structure, the hierarchy, the chain of command, but probably also the control, the power that he could wield.

Because remember, he takes after his father. And for a while, it looked like Steve found his path in life. He joined the local police department, and in the beginning, his parents were proud. This wasn't just his achievement. It was a family achievement. And they bragged about Steve. They loved his status. They reveled in the fact that their family name was tied to the law. It made them feel above others.

Co-workers who were interviewed by detectives described Steve as very neat in appearance, punctual and serious about procedure. He followed instructions. He talked about advancing his career and making making law enforcement his long-term goal. Supervisors initially believed that Steve had a lot of potential because those are good qualities in a cop. But over time, the complaints started stacking up against Steve,

reports that he struggled with anger, especially when he felt challenged or corrected. Others said his attitude shifted depending on who was watching. And multiple accounts described him as responding poorly to criticism, sometimes refusing to adjust his behavior when instructed. And isn't that what his own mother claimed that Rose had an issue with? Remember, she wouldn't adjust her behavior when Sylvia gave her what she called motherly advice. And Steve's supervisor addressed the concerns with him at the time,

and he warned him of what they expected from him. And for a short time, it seemed like he took it seriously and his demeanor changed. Fewer issues were documented, but that changed didn't last. The pattern returned with greater frequency of anger escalating too quickly, attitudes with people at the work, behaviors that were inconsistent with their expectations. And eventually, Steve was terminated, totally taken off the force. And that job loss, it hit him hard.

People close to this family said that he viewed it not just as a setback, but as personal failure. And his parents took it really hard too, because in their world, that badge, it meant, something to them. And losing it felt like they were slipping backwards, like they were being disgraced. It was soon after this period in Steve's life, after that confidence blow, after that identity shift, that he met Rose. And that timing is important. Because Rose didn't just represent romance to him. She represented progress, optimism, a future that wasn't defined by what he had just lost.

And you know that for Rose, Steve looked like a doorway out of of everything she survived. He was a man with a plan. And then, when Aden came along, Sylvia seemed to step up right away, and Steve seemed like such an attentive father to him. It looked like Rose had this beautiful support system. But what Rose didn't know yet was how quickly support can turn into control, especially when you're living on someone else's land, when you're an outsider.

And the family that you're hoping to marry into believes that loyalty has a direction. Once you move onto God's country, sometimes it feels that the rest of the world is very, very far away. And Rose eventually started telling close friends that something in Steve had shifted. Not in one dramatic moment, it was a slow change that she started noticing in hindsight. The tone of the arguments, the way that he reacted when she would challenge him, the way the disagreements stopped feeling like disagreements and started feeling like power struggles. And when Rose finally began opening up, what she described was in just, were stressed or the new baby is causing tension.

She told her friends the behavior had started before Aiden was even born, but she just didn't tell anyone at the time. Rose wasn't the kind of person who ran to people with every one of her problems. Her whole life, she was trained to handle things quietly, which she did. But now with her closest friends, trying to spill all they can to help find her, they said Rose confided in them about how the conflict moved from harsh words to physical aggrands. She described moments where Steve would grab her, block her from leaving a room during an argument.

She said he'd accuse her of things that she didn't do, and when he got angry, it wasn't always clear what would push him even further. And that's terrifying. Talk about walking on eggshells. At first, because this is what people do when they're trying to keep the dream alive, Rose rationalized it.

And that makes me sad for her. She told herself, okay, wait a minute, maybe he's stressed. Maybe because he lost it. his job and he has to have this new one and now he's a father, it was overwhelming, that he could still change if she just gave him some time. But friends are now admitting to detectives that they could hear the uncertainty in her voice, like she was trying to convince herself that she believed the word she was saying, but in her heart, she already knew the truth.

And layered over everything was the one fear that Rose couldn't shake. Aiden. Rose knew what it felt like to grow without the stability of a father in the picture, and that hurt her. She didn't want her baby growing up around Ray's voices, though, and around control that keeps tightening. So she felt trapped. There were two outcomes, and they both scared her. She stays, and there's a risk that Aiden absorbs everything

that's happening in this unsafe environment, or she leaves, and Aiden grows up without his dad. And to be fair, it wasn't simple for Rose to leave. She didn't have family in Tennessee. She didn't have that financial cushion. She was earning minimum wage when she could work, because, you know, she now had a baby to take care of as well. Rose told her friends that her life felt like

it was being held together by whatever she could manage that day. But even then, she didn't talk like someone that was defeated. She talked like someone who was planning because she was smart. She was waiting and watching and deciding what she was going to do next. But when they dig even further into this, detectives uncovered a police report that was filed by Rose just a few months after Aden was born. Rose actually walked into the Wayne County Sheriff's Department,

and she said that Steve physically attacked her during an argument. It all started after she found text messages on his phone from another woman. Interesting, isn't it? Because wasn't that the narrative that Steve's mom was setting forth about Rose, that she was unfaithful? But according to this police report, when Rose confronted her,

and Steve. He got so angry that he grabbed her by the hair. He called her names, and then he turned it back on her and accused her of cheating and projecting it on him. That argument escalated into violence. But wait, because here's a detail that's going to make your skin crawl when you think about it. At the time Rose reported him, Steve wasn't just some guy. He was working for the Perry County Sheriff's Office. Yeah. So wait, after he got fired, okay, from Wayne County, he was somehow able to find a job as a cop just one county over. So he had a badge again, a uniform, an authority. And now Rose was sitting there telling officers who were former co-workers of Steve, she was nervous to even come forward because she was afraid of the good old

boy system, afraid that her report wouldn't be taken seriously, afraid people would protect one of their own. But he was a former employee. And the department told her that wouldn't happen, that he had been a problem cop. And they documented her statement. They asked all the follow-up questions. They even photographed her injuries. And Rose cooperated.

When detectives from Wayne County actually contacted Steve about these allegations, he of course denied it. He said, I never laid a hand on her. He claimed that Rose made everything up because she was mad at him. She was just trying to make him look bad because they were going to be. through a simple rough patch in their relationship, according to him, that she wasn't thinking clearly,

that she was acting out of anger, and he minimized the text messages. He called them harmless and brushed off the idea that he was involved with another woman, and he framed the entire thing as drama. But there was proof that Rose was telling the truth. And when investigators reviewed the statement and all the evidence they had, they determined

there was probable cause pointing to domestic assault, and they brought charges. against Steve. After all of this, Rose did what you only do when you hit the point where you realize love isn't enough. She left. And that was a huge step in the right direction. She moved out of the home on the Beard's Dors property, took Aden with her, and everyone on her side that was watching this play out was so proud of her. She even got a small apartment and she started parenting on her own. And friends said she was focused, she was locked in on building a new environment, a stable one, with or without Steve, and it looked like it was going to be without.

However, Rose wasn't ready to close the door on Steve completely because she had a heart. She still loved him. She told people she didn't want Aidan to grow up without her father in that belief. And her hope for a whole family left that door open just a crack. And a few weeks after the report was filed, Rose and Steve start talking again. And I can just see the pattern of control and mistreatment, and I'm sure you can too.

It's called Darvo. It's an acronym for the manipulation tactic used by people like Steve to avoid accountability. D is for deny, which we know he did, even to officers after Rose made the report. A is for attack. This is when they turn everything around, and they try to damage the victim

credibility. Recall how he minimized it to officers. And then there's reverse victim and offender. That's the end of the acronym. And this is when they claim that they're the victims. Recall how Steve claimed that Rose was the one cheating. That's Darvoh. And the cycle continued. But Steve apologized to her. He told Rose, he understood why she left. He promised he was going to take anger management classes. And he said something that to Rose probably sounded like accountability. He blamed the pressure on his parents and being on his parents' property, so shifting the blame. But it wasn't all a lie. He admitted that living under his parents' influence, where their strong opinions and control were constant, had added fuel to everything.

He told Rose they needed a space away from his mom and dad. They were the problem, he said, and Rose really wanted space to be the fix. So she agreed to drive. the charges against Steve after he enrolled in his anger management courses, which he did. And the case was dismissed. And then she allowed Steve to move into her new apartment. And this seemed like the answer. They were away from the property, away from the constant interference, and for a moment, it probably felt like Rose could breathe again. Like maybe the worst part was behind them. But then something happened that made it clear the distance did not equal freedom at all. What happened next didn't even happen because of Steve. It happened

because of his own mother, Sylvia. Last summer, just six months before Rose disappeared, she gets a knock on the door. And the person that's there is about to shake the ground under her completely. Child Protective Services. It's hard to explain the kind of fear that hits you in that moment if you haven't lived it. Because it's not just embarrassment, It's not just anger. It's this instant primal panic that someone's about to decide whether you are able to keep your own child.

And the allegation was serious enough that CPS had to follow their procedure. They didn't come casually. They came to investigate Rose. Can you imagine? And I know some of you don't have to imagine because it's happened to you. And I am sorry about that.

When the system is used against you, it's cruel. And they inspected that apartment. They looked as like, living conditions, they evaluated Aden's well-being and they checked for all kinds of hazards. They watched the way that Rose interacted with her baby, how she held him, how she responded to him, what the environment felt like. And in the end, after doing what they were required to, CPS found no signs of mistreatment or neglect and no safety concerns significant enough to justify intervention. So Aiden stayed right where he belonged with his mother. However, even though Rose

passed the investigation. The experience doesn't just fade away because the point wasn't CPS cleared her. The point was there was someone that was willing to call CPS in the first place. Someone wanted a paper trail. Someone wanted an official file that hinted that Rose wasn't a good mother.

And Rose learned that that call didn't come from a stranger who misunderstood her situation. It came from Sylvia Beersdorf. This wasn't just interference. This is a line being crossed. It proved something that Rose really didn't want to accept. The distance meant nothing. Sylvia could reach into Rose's life and pull a lever that forced authority figures to come into her home.

CPS has to investigate every report, which meant the allegation didn't just create a moment of stress. It created a record. And Rose now felt exposed and mistreated and misrepresented like someone was trying to rewrite her. her identity as a mother in a way that she can't even control. And when you're already trying to hold together a very fragile new start, that kind of violation, it changes things. Rose didn't just feel hurt. She felt warned. Like this just exposed a clear danger to her,

the lengths that Sylvia was willing to go to hurt her. As ugly as that was emotionally, there was another reality that kept coming up, one that Rose couldn't outsmart with sheer willpower. willpower and that was money. There still wasn't enough money. Rose was still earning a minimum wage when she could work and her schedule wasn't consistent and Steve's income as a deputy at that point was limited and the bills didn't just pause because your family life is tense. There was formula, diapers, rent, car maintenance, everything kept coming and that is when Steve decided and the way he framed it was as a practical solution decided to move them back to his

parents' house. He's like, babe, it's rent-free, we have built-in childcare, we can get ahead. And if you're wondering, how they ended up back there, now you know. Rose had essentially escaped all this, but now she needed relief. And you know that time does something, like it feels harsh in the beginning, like, oh, his mom called CPS on me, that's terrible. But then over time, as everything keeps piling up, she felt like she needed a way out. And she was also being reassured about the man she loved, that it was going to be okay, that he was going to protect her. But her instincts were strong.

She wasn't choosing between a good option and a bad option. She was choosing between two different kinds of risks, staying on her own, isolated, exhausted, and financially pinned with no family nearby, or returning to an environment where her parenting had already been policed and were someone who just tried to weaponize CPS against her. Yikes, that's not a good place to be in. Rose knew what would happen if she was.

she moved back. She already saw the pattern. Sylvia watching, correcting, stepping in, trying to parent her own child, and Steven Sr. inserting himself and siding with his wife. And Steve agreeing with his parents. Any pushback from Rose, she was labeled having an attitude or being disrespectful or overreacting. You thought this was your run club era. Turns out it was more of a thinking about run club era. The good news? Someone's marathon training is about to start. Sell your workout gear on Deepop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest.

They get their race day fit and you get a payout for trying. Someone on Deepop wants what you've got. Start selling now. Deepop where Taste recognizes taste. But still, Rose felt like she didn't really have another choice. So in October of 2009, she made the decision. didn't want to make. She, Steve, and Aden moved back with Steve's parents. She thought it's only going to be for a few months. Aidan's going to be a little bit older. He can go into daycare. She and

Steve would be working by then. They would get ahead and they would move out. But then Steve went into the National Guard, which made sense of the time. A salary benefits. They had no idea he was going to be going to Iraq. Even Camp Shelby in Mississippi was far. Then he was gone. Rose was all alone on that isolated land with his parents. But this is where Rose's mindset becomes so important because she didn't just sit in her room and hope that everything was going to improve. If the Beardorf's property was a trap financially, she was going to build herself a key and a way out.

And her exit plan was EMT school. And Steve's parents even agreed to watch Aden for her, to support her education. This could look functional, Like the kind of multi-generational setup that families always swear by. The grandparents help, parents help with the babies. But Rose's friends told detectives, this was so unpredictable. Some days were okay.

Other days were so intense. And Rose told her friends that Sylvia and Steve would say, like, oh, we're just helping. But that help came with watching eyes. Supervision, constant observation, and constant commentary. that made Rose feel like she could never relax. Even something so routine had to have an audience. Simple decisions invited correction all the time. And she was an adult, and it felt suffocating.

So Rose started spending more and more time away from the main parts of the house and back in her room that she and Steve made their own inside their parents' home. But not because she was lazy, not because she was sulking in there. It was because isolation was the only one way she could avoid conflict. With Steve gone, the arguments weren't as bad, but the dynamic,

it didn't disappear. Rose was monitored. She was managed. She still felt like her choices were being weighed and judged. And the hardest part was the leverage. She needed child care to go to class. She needed the class to be independent. She knew that refusing their help could mean losing the ability to attend class and losing the one thing that could get her out of there. So she pressed on. early 2010, the pressure was mounting. Living under someone else's control and trying to build this escape route, she wasn't strong, but she kept going. She kept showing up to class, doing the work, and planning,

and I told you she just needed time. She didn't know how little she had left. Before January was even halfway done, her time would run out. Friends were now looking back and telling detectives that Rose was more guarded than ever in the beginning of at that year, more careful, like she knew something they didn't. A silent threat, maybe. And then came Thursday, January 14th, the last day that Steve's parents supposedly saw her.

But they don't report her missing until Saturday? That right there must have been a big red flag. Who waits that long two days with a 10-month-old at home that relies on his mom? Why wait? Unless you need to buy time. In this case, never felt random and committed by a stranger. it felt like something close to home. Close enough that the people involved

needed to control Rose's story after she was gone. Control, that's key. The Beridorf demanded control. And detectives moved them from concerned loved one to persons of interest in Rose's disappearance. Detectives brought them back in. And this time the tone in the interview room wasn't polite. It was pointed.

Investigators asked both of them to undergo what's called a voice stress analysis. a structured test used to gauge truthfulness, kind of like a polygraph. And at first, both of them agreed. But as the procedure was being explained and the equipment was being prepared, detectives noticed even changing.

His posture was rigid, and his answers got really short, and he was irritated. His jaw started to tighten. And then without warning, he literally pushed himself away from the table and flat out refused to take the test. He raised his voice in anger, And detectives tried again. They asked him, directly and plainly,

did you have anything to do with Rose's disappearance? And it was like something shifted. Because Stephen didn't respond like someone falsely accused. He responded like someone standing at the edge of a cliff and deciding, should I jump or not? And that's when he said something that these investigators were not expecting to hear. Without a moment of hesitation, he said, I did it. I killed her. Detectives paused.

Because you always pause when something like that is said. You make sure, did I hear that correctly? Did I understand what they just said to me? And then you do the only thing you can. You start pulling on that thread so you can unravel the entire story. They wanted Stephen to start from the beginning. So he started telling detectives everything that happened

on Thursday, January 14th in his version. He said, Rose returned to the property late that night. around 9.30 p.m. He claimed he confronted her while she sat in her car right in his driveway. He accused her of lying, of not really going to EMT class, instead of accusing her of seeing someone else. And who does that sound like? Like father-like son, I guess. He admitted he was yelling and he claimed that Rose reached into her car and threw a gatoried bottle at him, hitting him in the head, and that's when he said he lost it. But from everything you know about Rose,

Do you think she would do that? Well, before the detectives could consider that, Stephen described the act. The said ended Rose's life. He said he reached through the open car window. He grabbed her by the throat, and he choked her until she wasn't breathing. It was like he was explaining an everyday occurrence, not a murder.

He just admitted to ending a young woman's life. And not any woman, his son's fiance, the mother of his grandson. And he wasn't done. He claimed he pushed her into the passenger seat. He got into her car, drove it away, and then he gave detectives a step-by-step list of what he had done like it was rehearsed.

He drove down Highway 228, stopped at a convenience store, bought two or three two-liter Coca-Cola bottles, dumped out the soda, filled the bottles with gasoline, drove to Highway 114 bridge in Clifton, and threw Rose's body from her car, into the Tennessee River.

It's heartless. And then he said he drove Rose's vehicle west to McNary County, parked it on a remote road, poured the gasoline inside, and set it on fire. And after burning the car, he said he hitchhiked home. He was picked up by someone that he believed was a prison guard, according to him. And throughout the confession, over and over,

Stephen Sr. kept coming back to the same point, almost like he needed it. like he needed it to stick. He said Sylvia had nothing to do with this. She didn't see anything. She didn't help. She didn't know. He framed this as he did it alone, that it was sudden, that it was an unplanned explosion of anger, a one-man story. And on the surface, it sounded detailed enough that you could almost picture it happening. But detectives won't convict on a theory or a picture of something. They convict someone on what survives after someone is murdered, and that is the evidence.

And you're probably already thinking, there were two sets of footprints in the dirt near roses burned out car. Remember that, too? Detectors wanted to check on every detail, because the conviction depended on it. The convenience store? Well, that was the first stop, and there was a problem. Stephen had given a specific claim that he bought multiple large soda bottles. He emptied them, put gasoline inside. Well, they pulled transactions.

They pulled surveillance. And you know what they found? No record of that purchase. No matching sale. No clear footage of Stephen buying what he described. That part of the story didn't exist outside of this so-called confession. And next came the hitchhiking claim. A prison guard who supposedly picked him up in the middle of the night?

Well, investigators contacted nearby correctional facilities. They tried to identify who that could have been, and no one matched the route. The logs, nothing supported it. No record that this was a real story. It was like, nice try, Stephen, even trying to work in someone in law enforcement. And then there was the timeline. Stephen had built a sequence that required multiple stops and miles

and a window tight enough that it should have left traces and sightings of him. Camera footage, something. But timestamps and roadway and business cameras along parts of this route didn't line up with the version he was trying to sell to these investigators. After all that fell apart, that's when they leaned into something physical, something they couldn't ignore. And that was the footprints. The larger set, consistent with a work boot, and the smaller one with sneakers. What do you think that means?

An expert had noted stride pattern suggesting two people were side by side. One of the prints overlap the other, implying that they were interacting. This wasn't like someone could argue, oh, one set of prints was from a different time. No, they would have been washed away by that point. And they couldn't have been roses because she was already dead, dumped in the river by Stephen. So things did not add up. So they turned to the person it seemed Stephen was trying to protect the most,

his wife, Sylvia. After Stephen's confession, she agrees to take the voice stress analysis test. When it's finished, she is shaking. And before a detective can even present her with the results, she said, I probably flunked that test miserably. And they were like, why do you say that? And then she answered in a way that didn't just sound like a woman that was frustrated with her daughter-in-law, and forgive me for what I'm about to say, but this is what came out of her mouth. She said, because I've said I wanted that bitch dead

so many times. Damn, don't hold back, and she didn't. And this wasn't exactly an admission that she killed Rose, but it was an admission of something the detectives could not forget. It's intense. It's hatred. It's the kind of language that leaves an emotional fingerprint, even when hands physically don't leave any. Sylvia wanted her gone. Of course, she denied participating. She denied witnessing anything,

denied knowing that Rose had been killed until after the fact, and she tried to frame those harsh words as venting. I was just angry, she said. But at this point, the investigation wasn't about whether Sylvia's hands did something. It was about whether her hands did something. It was about whether her own husband could have killed Rose in their own driveway on their property without Sylvia knowing. And then, detectives notified Steve about his father's confession.

How should someone react to that news that their father killed the woman they love? Well, some people who witnessed his reaction described him as devastated, emotionally overwhelmed. Others said he sounded genuinely shocked, like he could have never in a million years imagined his father would do something like this. But there were some people who said his reaction was complicated, not exactly disbelief, but more like confirmation of one of his biggest fears coming to life. This was a man he had always been afraid of. He complied with his father for his own sake, and now that fear turned into reality in the form of a murder.

Remember, Steve's grandpa was a murderer, and now it looked like his dad was too. It was difficult for investigators to determine whether Steve's was rooted in grief, rooted in denial, or something else. But just to let you know, there wasn't any evidence that Steve was involved. But I kept wondering, how did she text him on Friday? Was he saying that because he's siding with his family and he knew something? No. I think you know who had her phone.

She was never going to Georgia. She didn't make that text. Her phone did. But it was her killer. And on January 21st of 2010, just saying, Six days after Rose was reported missing, Stephen Beersdorf Sr. was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and he was taken to jail and held without bond.

But even with a confession and an arrest, the case had dangerous weaknesses. There was no body. And he claimed he threw Rose into the Tennessee River. So investigators searched hard. They had teams working that river with boats, specialized equipment, cadaver dogs. They brought in everything to the bank air support, scan the shorelines, and they saw nothing.

No clothing, no personal items, no trace that confirmed Stephen's story. His confession had a bunch of inconsistencies already, which you can also call lies. And if Rose wasn't in the river, then Stephen had lied about the most important part. If he had lied about where he put Rose, that meant the answer about where she was

wasn't out in this long stretch of water. She was somewhere else, somewhere less accessible. maybe somewhere in God's country. This is when they felt like she was somewhere out on the Beardorf's property, that 40 acres. A search warrant was issued for the entire property, and investigators arrived prepared for the worst.

They started with the house first, because the house is where you look for signs of things like a disruption, a struggle, panic, anything that breaks the normal rhythm of a household. But when they walked in, it didn't even feel normal. Detectives noted the house was, unnaturally clean. It wasn't tidy. It wasn't like, oh, we just cleaned because company was coming over. This was like someone trying to erase that something had happened. Rose's room looked arranged like it was staged.

Surfaces were completely scrubbed. Personal items were like sat out like there were props. It did not even feel lived in. It felt controlled. And there's that word again. This made it even more suspicious. And then outside the property, was exactly what it sounded like on paper. I'm talking sprawling land, thick woods, uneven terrain, brushed with almost no visibility. The kind of place where a person could disappear and the earth would keep their hiding place

a secret forever. Investigators bring in cadaver dogs again. They search systematically. And the handler started the dogs at different points so they wouldn't influence each other. There was no guiding them, no let's see what happens if we walk them over here,

a certain place, none of that. And independently, the dogs were working, and this made this so chilling to me, and one by one, the dogs led their handlers towards the same spot. A burn pile behind the house. Near the tree line, not just somewhere on the property, not a general interest area, no, the exact spot.

Each dog alerted right there. And near the burn pile, investigators noticed something that didn't match the surrounding overgrowth. Most of the area had weeds and brush with uneven grass growing right towards the woods. But there was a section near the center that looked different. The ground had been cleared down to bare soil, like it had been scraped again and again, disturbed and smoothed and disturbed over and over again. It did not look natural.

It looked intentional. And that is when they brought in ground penetrating radar. They were searching for signs of a barrel void. spaces underneath the earth that were dug intentionally or any irregularities consistent with the grave. But the radar didn't show a burial site. There were no clear underground abnormalities, yet the dogs kept insisting something was there.

So investigators don't walk away. They start working the burn pile itself. And as investigators sifted through the ash, carefully and methodically, treating every fragment like it could be a piece, of Rose herself, as graphic as that sounds and as heartbreaking as it is, a lieutenant did notice something. At first, it looked like nothing. It was just a partially burned piece of paper with brittle edges, blackened. The kind of thing most people would think is trash, but then when he carefully looked at it,

a small portion remained intact, and they realized it wasn't a random piece of paper. It was a diagram, and it was an anatomical illustration of a human heart. And that's eerie. It was a page from an EMT study guide, something Rose would have had with her in class. This was a connection between Rose, something of hers, and something being burned on this property. And if it meant her class materials were burned and she never left for class, this was even worse than they thought. So they dug deeper. And as they did, investigators reported the smell changed. First, it smelled like diesel fuel.

It was strong and unmistakable. But then, as they went deeper and deeper into the earth, something else mixed in, and it was an odor that trained investigators immediately recognized. Human decomposition. And soon after that, they located what they came there for. When no one wanted to find burned human tissue. Small pieces. Not enough to tell the story on its own about what happened, but enough to prove that something terrible did happen. These samples were collected under strict chain of custody.

They were sent to the TBI Crime Lab in Nashville. And when the results came back, it confirmed what they suspected. First of all, it was human. Secondly, it was female. And finally, they actually use Aden's DNA as a comparison sample, and the lab was able to confirm. It was Rose. It was what her family was dreading.

It's what needed to be proven. It was Rose Gaggins. And detectives began reconstructing what that burn site itself suggested. This wasn't a quick fire. This wasn't a panic burn. Investigators believe Stephen Sr. burned Rose's body for an extended period of time, likely hours. This wasn't a single burn.

They believe it happened in cycles. He would burn it, let it cool, crush and break it down. And then he would burn what remained. what remained over and over again. Then he would rake it, reignite it, and repeat. Just saying that, it makes me sick to my stomach because it is a person and detective suspected what couldn't be burned to ash.

He scattered into the creek bed and mixed into soil behind his own home. One investigator described the final reality in a way that's really hard to process. He said, what remained of rose could fit in a teacup. That was it. That was all that was left of such a beautiful, innocent mother.

Someone's daughter, friend, loved one, reduced to almost nothing. It's beyond cruel. It is pure evil. Stephen believed no body, no crime, but that burn pile proved the opposite. The body is part of the crime, but it's not the only proof a crime occurred. And finally, the detectives had something that they could take to court. And I know you might be thinking, what about Sylvia? There were two sets of a prints by Rose's car. Let's not forget that, and I'm sure you haven't. And investigators kept coming back to a practical reality.

That burn pile? It wasn't hidden on some far off corner of the county. It was on their property behind their home, visible from the kitchen window. So of course, they argued it's nearly impossible for Sylvia to miss. the smoke, the repeated burning, the smell. And this is not for investigators to be dramatic. They were emphasizing this because this wasn't any smell. Burning human remains carries a very distinctive odor. It's not something you would confuse with gasoline or rubber or trash.

And it's not like this was a fire that looked like a tiny campfire either. The flames would have had to roar. The temperature had to get very high. And based on the physical evidence, the confession, And the witness statements, a grand jury indicted Sylvia on two charges, good for them. First-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. She wanted Rose gone.

She said as much to detectives, even if she supposedly said it in anger. And remember the employee who corroborated the story? He admitted he heard her tell her husband to get rid of Rose. But an indictment is not a conviction. Prosecutors knew the case against Sylvia, it came with a big risk. Without a direct admission and without physical evidence placing her hands at the burn pile,

the case leaned heavily on intent, access, and what would have been impossible not to notice. And that's not as powerful in a courtroom. It makes you vulnerable to the two words the defense attorneys live for. Reasonable doubt. Sylvia was facing the possibility of a life sentence if she was convicted at trial. So she accepted what's known as a best interest plea to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. And this kind of plea essentially is, I'm not admitting that I did it in the way that you're saying I did, but I understand you have enough evidence that a jury could convict me. And I'm taking this deal to avoid an even worse outcome. And when she took the plea, she actually mouthed, I love you to her husband. How does she even

have the capability to love? That's what I'm asking. Like, how can you compartmentalize All of that. I don't know. But in exchange, the first-degree murder charge was dismissed, and 44-year-old Sylvia received a 15-year sentence, and to many, that didn't feel like justice. But to the system, this is a resolution. They move on, and they moved on next to Stephen. He pled to first-degree murder, of course, guilty.

And that plea meant to prosecutors, they didn't have to take him to trial. It meant that he also avoided the death penalty, something the state was prepared to pursue. He was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility only after about 51 years. And because he was 47 at the time, that meant he would be incarcerated for the rest of his life. He would die in prison. The case resolved in a way that reflects both the horror of what happened and the reality of what could be proven.

I know you don't want to hear this, but Sylvia was released in 2019. And for Rose's mother, Kathy, the court outcome, It didn't erase the grief. And the hardest adjustment wasn't the paperwork or the sentencing or going to all the court hearings. It was the quietness. The everyday absence she felt not getting to hear her daughter's voice. She would never hear her again.

And she then realized how much of her life was built around the idea that she would see her daughter again, that she would be part of her life, that she was just a call away, no matter how far she was. but this space between them was too far. It's forever. And at some point after the arrest, Steve, Rose's fiance, actually contacted Kathy.

He retained custody of Aden in case you were wondering, and he told Kathy he was so sorry. He said he couldn't believe what his parents had done. Kathy believed that he really meant it. He did sound broken, but it doesn't restore a mother to her child. Kathy was clear about what Aden would grow up knowing. He will not be told that Rose left him.

He will not be told she abandoned him. He will not be told that she chose a new life somewhere else because the truth is simpler and much more cruel. Rose was taken from him. I'm sure that you do have unanswered questions, and a lot of times we can't possibly get into the mind of an evil person. They're not made.

the way we are. We can't make sense of the senseless. But you might ask, why? What was the motive? Well, the motive isn't wrapped up in one sentence, one line we can explain. Because the only explanation we ever heard from Stephen Sr. was his confession. And detective said that most of his story didn't even match the evidence. The motive has to be built in the way that the investigators and prosecutors built it, not from a narrative, but from the pressure points, from the patterns, from what Rose was doing right before she was killed, from what the Buredorf's had to lose. Aiden?

Number one. Because if you strip this down to the most brutal truth, Rose wasn't just a young mom on their property. She was the gatekeeper to the one thing that gave Sylvia a new identity and purpose, her grandson. If Rose left that property with Aiden, Sylvia and Steven Sr. didn't just lose a baby that they adored. They lost control, and control was currency to them. That's a threat. Rose was becoming harder to control, and over time,

she wasn't just someone they disliked. She was someone who could create consequences. CPS didn't side with Sylvia. They figured if Rose stayed alive and followed through on leaving, what else could she do? What else would she say? What would she pursue legally? She was now viewed as an obstacle.

Stephen never snapped. He planned this. The lies they told about her being unstable, a bad mom, and a cheater, that was to justify why she deserved to be removed in their minds. And in the end, in this household, you always side with family.

And what gets me, what I can't stop thinking about, is how hard Rose fought to do things the right way, how she learned to fend for herself before she was even old enough to understand and how unfair that was. The tough times didn't harden her heart. It was the opposite. And that's why this case is so devastating.

It forces you to face a truth that we don't like to admit. Sometimes you can do everything right and still cross paths with the people who are just evil. Evil in the way they calculate. Evil in the way they control. Evil in the way they try to erase. But they can't, because Rose lives on in this story, her memory lives on in her son,

and now in each one of your minds. So don't forget her. And thank you all for being here for Rose's story. I will see you in my next video. Bye.